


set your course by the stars

by besidemethewholedamntime



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, Comfort, F/M, Gen, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 20:45:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17884925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/besidemethewholedamntime/pseuds/besidemethewholedamntime
Summary: "Any other person and she’d be worried about them falling asleep, but she knows Fitz won’t. He is as fascinated as she is. Even if he did though, she doesn’t think she’d mind. It’s just his company she likes to keep. How horrible to watch the falling stars alone."Fitzsimmons stargazing at the Academy, back when everything was simpler. A birthday present for the absolutely wonderful Libby!





	set your course by the stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LibbyWeasley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibbyWeasley/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LIBBY! I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day because you deserve it so much! Thank you for being you <3  
> I hope you like this little stargazing academy thing I put together for you. It's really just our two favourite beans being all soft with each other back in the day.   
> The title comes from a quote by Omar N. Bradley.   
> I hope you like it and are enjoying your day :)

She cracks open his door at just past two in the morning.

The lights in the hall are on a sensor, otherwise she would have turned them off. Artificial white light is not the best way to wake Fitz from deep sleep, rather soft light and cajoling is more effective at this time of the morning, but for a lack of any other options then she supposes it’ll have to do.

“Unggg,” Fitz groans in answer to the light. He wraps the duvet around him tighter.

“I know, Fitz,” Jemma whispers urgently, trying to find his ankle to shake him out of bed. “But please, get up. There’s something I want to show you.”

“Mornin’ time for showing,” he mumbles into the pillow. “Now time for sleeping.”

“Oh, please, Fitz.” She locates the other ankle and tugs. “Please just get up.”

He cracks open his eyes and looks at his watch. “Aw, geez, Simmons.”

“The stars are falling, Fitz.”

No more complaining. Not even a long-suffering look. Instead he looks at her pointedly as he gets out of bed and she turns around, hears him rustling into his clothes. Remarkably fast for this time of night, it’s barely a minute before he coughs and she’s able to turn back around to him running his hand through his hair.

“You got the bag?”

Jemma holds it up. “Of course I do.”

Fitz ducks his head, rubbing the back of his neck. When he opens the door more of the artificial light spills into the room. “Then let’s go.”

Jemma doesn’t think she’ll ever understand how the Academy campus, during the day so bright with the knowledge it contains, can be so devoid of light at night. As they head towards the wood-fringed field behind the accommodation block, they stumble across steps that they are so familiar with otherwise. Once, when she was still new to this place and this country, she was scared, even though she always said she wasn’t. Now, with Fitz’s heavy breathing beside her and steps falling in time with hers, she can’t imagine how she ever could be.

They have a spot for star-gazing. So many of them they have tried over the months but this one, just in front of the trees, is their favourite. Sometimes, especially during the winter, it rains and the grass is soggy, and the flowers that grow in the spring can be especially uncomfortable for Fitz’s hayfever but it offers the best view of the sky and in the end, she’s found, that everything is bearable when they’re together.

“You forgot the torch, didn’t you?”

“We’ll be fine without it.”

“How did you even forget it? You have a checklist!”

“Oh, shush. It’s not even important.”

“You know, Simmons, if I was the one who forgot it then you’d be grumpy with me.”

“We only need it to put the blanket down.”

“That’s kind of an important part.”

“Ugh, Fitz,” she hisses decisively. Sometimes he can be the most infuriating person she’s ever known. “Enough. Now pass me that corner, will you?”

No matter how much they bicker, it seems, they always work efficiently, and in no time at all they’re settled on their backs, watching the endless dance of the stars.

It’s quiet. The only sound is that of them breathing, slow and deep. Any other person and she’d be worried about them falling asleep, but she knows Fitz won’t. He is as fascinated as she is. Even if he did though, she doesn’t think she’d mind. It’s just his company she likes to keep. How horrible to watch the falling stars alone.

“Are you alright?” He whispers. Jemma looks over and sees the white air that comes out of his mouth as he speaks.

She reaches over to grab his hand, squeezes once. “Yeah.”

The squeeze that comes back is reassuring. “Good.”

The ground is hard beneath their backs and the night is colder than expected and yet she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

The stars are breath giving, stretching all the way into the infinite night. It isn’t very long before some begin to move across the sky. She hears Fitz give a great exhale and cannot help herself making the same movement only moments later. This sight. No matter how many times she’s seen it over the years, it’s still incomparable to anything else.

Fitz’s hand is still in hers. The only warm thing in the night. He’s a terrible grump, truly awful at tidying up, and sometimes he drives her so mad that she could tear her hair out of her skull sometimes. He’s also her best-friend, her person. Nobody she’s ever met, or will meet again, will ever compare.

Usually the nights are quiet, but she can tell that her awakening him at three in the morning, and the excessive silence she keeps worry him. He squeezes her hand again.

“You okay?”

The truth is that she’s not, not really. She never is any time that she drags him out here to watch the stars with her. A terrible mixture of guilt and longing always overcome her in the end.

Her silence is his answer. “You thinking about your dad?”

At home her father always took her out stargazing, no matter if there was a meteorological event or not. When her homesickness was at its worst, and when she wanted nothing more than to run away, she had run to Fitz, blindly upset and he had sat quietly and asked her what she most wanted. If she couldn’t have her father, have her home, then at least she could still have the stars.

“I forgot,” she whispers, trying not to cry on such a night. “I didn’t even think of it.”

“It’s alright, Simmons. We’ve been busy.” The hand in hers holds on tighter. “I don’t think your dad would have minded if you forgot once.”

Logically she knows that. He’s so proud of her and her studies. He tells her so all the time.

“I’ve been missing them less,” she whispers so quietly, Fitz must lean over to hear her. A terrible, shameful secret. “I don’t think of them as often as I should.”

“Makes sense. We’ve been away from home for a while. Doesn’t make you a bad person.” He looks at her and grins. “Just a normal one.”

She tries to laugh, or smile at least, but she can’t quite manage it. “Maybe.”

There’s a shuffling, and the distance beside them as decreased. “Look, Simmons, we’ve got nothing until one tomorrow. What about we phone your mum and dad then? Tell them about the stars.”

She turns from Fitz’s honestly earnest face to the expanse of the sky. “That’s a good idea.”

He playfully nudges her. “I do have them sometimes, you know.”

“Only sometimes,” she makes sure to point out. Then she squeezes his hand again. “Thank you, Fitz.”

“Always, Simmons.” He smiles at her, ever so gently and carefully. It astounds her, sometimes, how her prickly and grouchy best-friend can sometimes be the warmest person in the world. How abrasive he is, yet how soft his hands are.

Fitz looks back up the sky, the silver trails of meteors falling to places unknown. “I don’t know how anyone could ever get sick of this.” He sounds like a child, so wonder-struck. “It’s magnificent.”

“Yes.” She looks at him, his wide eyes and open mouth, filled with the wonder of the stars. This man, her friend who lies out in the dark with her at three in the morning. “Absolutely magnificent.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to leave kudos/comments. Please feel free not to. Either way, I hope you have a lovely day!


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